Category Archives: Mom

Alexis, Brandon, Candid Portrait, Carla, Elainie, Holidays, Jason, Logan, Mom, Olympic Sports, Teresa

Mother’s Day

May 11, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

On Mother’s Day, I hosted the first family event at the new house. I learned the following things.

1. My mom, despite literally knowing me my entire life, will takes something out of my fridge and eat it without looking at the expiration date.
2. If you ask Elainie to get mayonnaise out of the fridge, she will tell you that you don’t have mayonnaise, you only have Miracle Whip.
3. If I have popped a blister and am bleeding from my foot, I can talk Alexis into taking, not 1, but 2 pictures of my bloody foot.

Here are a couple of pictures from Mother’s Day. I will spare you the blood foot picture, unless you explicitly email me at bennett@photography139.com requesting the picture.

There are about 30 other Mother’s Day pictures in the Family Photo Album. Just click on the link below:

Mother’s Day

Alexis, Baier, Becky, Carla, Derrick, House, James, Jason, Jay, Jeff Daniel, Jen, Jesse, Mom, Monica, Nader, Sara, Shannon, Teresa, Yin

Primary Painting Day

March 3, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Although Carla and Alexis did a wonderful job of taking pictures, one of the downsides of not having taken any pictures myself is that I didn’t get pictures of everybody that helped.

So thanks to my incredible painting crew on Primary Painting Day:

Jason Stensland
Carla Stensland
Alexis Stensland
Jason Baier
Jeff Daniel
Amy Yin
Jen Gorshe
Derrick Gorshe
Sara Junck
Teresa Kahler
Monica Henning
Nader Parsaei
Jay Janson
Jesse Howard
Shannon Bardole
Becky Perkovich
James Strachota

I’m sure I’m forgetting somebody. They all did a wonderful job and if it wasn’t for the stupid moisture, I’m sure we would have been completely done on that day. With everything except the kitchen cabinets.

My mom also cooked up a wonderful lunch and supper. I think a good time was had by most.

Some pictures from that day in no particular order:

The Master Bedroom

The Office

Roger taking the tile out to make room for a shower.

Shannon painting the entry way.

Jen working in the kitchen. Notice the swanky green color that kitchen cabinets used to be before the horrible antiquing.

Jesse, possibly high on something, working in the kitchen.

Jesse doing some primer work in the kitchen.

Sara and Alexis toiling in the kitchen. I do not know what I am doing.

Alexis and I painting the living room wall. It might be the accent wall, but I’m not sure if it is still considered an accent wall if you paint two walls that color.

Carla painting in the master bedroom. To the left of her is the family heirloom, our Grandpa Bennett’s painting stool.

Painting the living room. Jesse, Alexis, Me and James.

The guest bedroom.

Jason painting the living room.

Jason and Carla came over on Sunday to do some more painting.

Jen came over and did quite a bit more work in the kitchen as well. I just don’t have any pictures of that.

Alexis, Carla, House, Jason, Jesse, Mom

Day 2 – Things Start to Look Different

February 28, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

Day 2 at the house involved a ton of work on the cabinets. Carla put a coat of paint on the bathroom walls. The carpet removal team started their work.

I don’t remember the actual name of this color, so we will call it green.

I respect Carla and her painting ability, but I will always think that she is a coward because she didn’t use the family heirloom (she used that fancy yellow stool) to do her painting, but I will get into the family heirloom in more detail at a later date.

Jesse and Roger ripping out the hideous green carpet that was in the office. The wood floor underneath this carpet was a little rough, but nothing too bad.

Jesse working on carpet removal.

Jason, Jesse and Roger starting the carpet removal in the living room/dining room.

I spent a good chunk of this Thursday night in the basement sanding kitchen cabinet doors so that they could be primed and then painted. Maybe some of you don’t know about sanding, but when you get into the “zone” you can’t stop. You can’t be disturbed.

On about cabinet door #25, I hit the sweet sanding zone. It was at this time that Alexis came down to the basement and told me that I was needed upstairs.

I politely explained that I was in the zone and I was to be left alone.

She went back upstairs. I returned to the sweet bliss of the zone.

3 or 4 minutes went by and she returned.

“They really need you upstairs. Robowood says he needs you.”

“I don’t know anything about Robowood. Tell them I am in the zone.”

Alexis left and I returned to the sweet bliss of the sanding zone.

5 minutes later Alexis returned.

“They say they really need you upstairs.”

“Did you explain the zone to them?”

“I told them, they say it is an emergency!”

“Of course, they don’t know anything about the zone, tell them I will be up in a moment.”

I finished the rest of the doors and went upstairs to find the first real major hiccup of the new homestead.

Those who know me at all or at least pretend to know me know this one thing, I am a big fan of wood floors. One of the big selling points of this house for me was the wood floors that had been tragically hidden by ugly carpet.

My carpet removal team (consisting of Jason, Robowood and Uncle Roger) had ripped into their job with a great amount of zeal. Perhaps too much zeal.

They had ripped up and cut the carpet in the dining room without looking at the wood underneath. This turned out to be a problem because the wood floor underneath the dining/living room turns out to not be finished.

Turns out I have a summer project I wasn’t counting on.

The carpet removal team turned into the carpet taping back together team.

Putting the carpet back together under the watchful eye of Mom.

It was a pretty good day’s work.

Carla, House, Jason, Jay, Jesse, Mom, Shannon, Teresa

The Ballad of House Buying: Part 4 – A Closer Examination

January 16, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

On Sunday, January 10, I looked at the House with the Cute Backyard with Jason. I had seen the house with my Mom, Carla and Jay. Plus Teresa had seen it earlier. I wanted Jason’s far more practical perspective.

Jesse also dropped by to look for a lead pipe. A simple lead pipe once cost that man 10,000 large. It has become a personal crusade of his to prevent any of his friends from going through such an ordeal again.

Jason felt that the house was solidly built and didn’t see any major problems.

It was now my time to think about whether or not I wanted to buy this house and what my purchase price goal would be.

I spent Sunday night thinking on whether or not I wanted to buy this house.

Shannon had asked me about the house and so I sent her the following email to both inform her and as a way for me to work out the pros and cons of this house.

SUBJECT: RE: Post-Holiday

This Nostradamus end of the world thing is lamer than anticipated.

Some pictures of this potential house.

Pluses for the kitchen.
1. Tons of cupboard space.
2. Fridge is usable.
3. Kitchen vent.
4. Space for a small table for a place to eat in the kitchen.
5. No dishwasher, but space for a dishwasher.
6. I actually kind of like the antiquing on the cabinet doors, but the handles would have to be replaced.
7. In side of cupboards painted a sweet red color. Would consider painting rest of kitchen that sweet red color.

Minuses for the kitchen.
1. The stove is usable, but I would most likely want to replace it right away.
2. Not a ton of counter space, but probably more than enough for somebody like me.
3. The saloon doors would have to go. This would break Jay’s heart.

Dining Room Pluses

Chandelier is pretty. Only pretty ceiling light fixture in the house.
It is just nice to have a dining area since I would like to be able to entertain.
The Hoosier would most likely go in the dining room. It has always been used as storage. In the future it would most likely be used for serving and storage.
Nice open floor plan
Wall separates entry way from the dining room.

Dining Room Minuses

Stupid saloon doors.
Would need to install a digital thermometer. But that is a cheap and easy fix.
If I would decide to further distinguish the living room from the dining room by leaving one room with carpet and exposing the wood floor in the other room, the carpet seam is in a weird place.

Living Room Pluses

2 decent sized walls, so a few possible layouts.
Big.
Great window.
Plenty of electrical outlets, but they need to be updated.

Living Room Negatives

Don’t really have any except general electrical updating.

Other half of kitchen

Master Bedroom Pluses

Big.
Two window thing is cool.
Two closets.

Master Bedroom Minuses

Curtains are so ugly they will have to be doused with Holy Water and then burned.
Perhaps the ugliest ceiling light fixture ever.
Master bedroom is in the front of the house, so closest to the street.

Bathroom Pluses

Decent sized tub.
Cool original tile.
Closet behind the tub.
Medicine cabinet.

Bathroom Minuses

Kind of small.
No shower, but there is a closet behind the tub, so it would be an easy add.
Kind of wish the toilet was green to match the tile.

Bedroom Two Pluses

One decent sized closet.
The fact that there are 3 bedrooms.
Beautiful woodwork under ugly carpet.
Newish, Pella windows.

Bedroom Two Minuses

What, only one closet?
Ugly carpet, but who likes carpet? Especially when you have wood floors!

Bedroom Three/Office Pluses

Three bedrooms means: 1 master bedroom, 1 guest bedroom and an office!!
This would make a sweet office.
Two closets.
Sweet built in shelves.
Good sized office.

Bedroom Three/Office Minuses

By far the ugliest carpet in the house, but sweet wood floor underneath, so the carpet could go.
Weird ceiling light fixture.

Basement Bathroom Pluses

There is a bathroom in the basement.
Includes shower, toilet and vanity.
Good sized and walled in.

Basement Bathroom Minuses

Shower is a bit on the short side.

Basement Workspace Pluses

There is a basement workspace.
Could probably be turned into a dark room fairly easily.

Screened in Patio

There is a screened in patio.
It has lighting.
There are two doors.
It lead to an open air brick patio made with Boone Bricks.

The Cute Backyard

This is a good sized yard.
“Fenced” in by a hedge.
Lots of landscaping
2 small trees. Potentially those pretty trees that flower in the spring.

Negatives

The white picket fence doesn’t really serve any purpose.
Lots of landscaping could be lots of work to break up.
Not really sure what they were growing back there. I think both grapes and raspberries.

Other Positives

Garage.
Flagpole, where I could fly a Cyclone flag on game days and the US flag on special days or where I could make political statements that would make me unpopular in the neighborhood.
Built by Thorngren, the most widely respected builder in Boone during the 1950s.
Loaded with potential.
Furnace is only 15 years old.
Lamp post in the front yard.
Located in a phenomenal neighborhood. Pretty much a straight shot out of town to get to work.
Only one owner. Ever.

Negatives

Fuse box. That would have to be replaced.
Garage is narrow. Driveway is long. Lots of potential shoveling. No service door on the garage.
It doesn’t have maintenance free siding. The outside will have to be painted every now and again.
Because of the hedge, I’m not sure what do about a fence.

I do like this window. A lot.

I actually looked at 5 other houses. There is another one that I kind of liked. It had a much bigger kitchen. It had 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, but it doesn’t have much of a yard. But one of the bathrooms had a sweet pink tub and sink.

I have no doubt that you are sufficiently bored now.

Carla, Derrick, Ernie, House, Jen, Mom, Teresa, Work

The Ballad of House Buying: Part 1 The Surrogates

January 9, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

So I think I can be a little freer with the experience of house buying that I have been enduring.

I guess the most important news is that I am officially going through the process of buying a house now. I would like to at least go through the process of how I came to where I am today to update people that may have very unintentionally fallen out of the loop. I have gotten very busy with the process, work and Jaycee functions. Plus, there was Symposium and helping Derrick and Jen move. You could say that my plate has been more than full. It has been overflowing with crawdads, honey.

To start at the beginning of finding this house you have to go back to December 30 or 31. I can’t remember which.

I joined my Mom, Teresa and Ernie for lunch. When I got back to the office my phone rang and it was my Aunt/Realtor Lori. One of the great parts about this process is that now I can recommend Lori as a Realtor to anybody and include the phrase, “And not just because she is my Aunt.”

Lori was going to look at a new listing that had just went on the market. It was on Garst, which is to say that it is in a good neighborhood. She told me that the house was a foreclosure and I know from the time that Carla spent as a Realtor that meant two things. You could buy the house cheap and that is was probably trashed.

I work for a living, which is to say that I haven’t figured out a way for the Computer Mine to pay me for not being here yet, so I had to decline checking out this house on Garst. I did mention that there was a house on Union and a house on Aldrich that I was interested in seeing. We set up an appointment to see those houses on Saturday.

Then I remembered that somebody that has so many crawdads on their plate should use a surrogate. So I called Teresa and asked if she and Mom could swing by and check out the house on Garst to see if it was even worth viewing.

She agreed to do just such a thing.

About 45 minutes later I got a text message that said, “Garst house is disgusting.”

I called her back to find out what disgusting might mean. Did it mean saloon doors between the dining room and the kitchen? I can change ugly.

Disgusting ended up meaning covered in mold.

Well you can’t just take mold down and store it in the basement, so the house on Garst was eliminated from contention.

But Teresa told me that they had went over and checked out the house on Union that I wanted to see.

Earlier that week I had told my Mom about how I had high hopes about a house on Union, but last time I had gotten my hopes up real high for a house they were dashed by bulging basement walls.

She had mentioned the house to Lori and they had went over and checked out the house.

Teresa recommended that I check out this house on Union.

Alexis, Boone FUMC, Brandon, Carla, Elainie, Holidays, Johnathan, Logan, Mom, Teresa

Thanksgiving

November 29, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

I started Thanksgiving by helping serve the free Thanksgiving dinner with my Mom, Teresa and Logan. I was given the extremely important duty of collecting trays.

After my shift concluded I talked dogs with Karma’s former vet Jordan and his family. Even though I know when I get a dog again it will be a Golden Retriever, I was told by one of Jordan’s daughters to look into Bulgarian Mountain Dogs.

I really had no intention of doing this, but I was told (incorrectly) that I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t do such a thing.

So enjoy this little tidbit from Wikipedia about Bulgarian Mountain Dogs (AKA Caucasian Shepherd Dog):

Powerful and massive, the Caucasian Ovcharka can be a difficult breed for an inexperienced owner, because it respects and obeys only those that it deems superior to itself. They are good with children, but will not see them as their masters. The dog develops a strong bond with its owner but will rarely be submissive; this is truly a thinking dog which relies on its own instincts, sometimes even disregarding its master’s directions. A breed with a very quick reaction time and fast protection reflexes, it has even been unfairly described by some as somewhat of a “loose cannon”. With proper care, handling and training, this is a well-behaved and obedient family companion.

I have no doubt that such a dog would see me as being superior, but Golden Retrievers are where it is at.

I concluded my Thanksgiving by eating a wonderful dinner and dominating my family in Rack Rummy.

Here are some pictures from the day.

IMAGES LOST

If you break it down, I had 6 Thanksgivings to attend this week. That is a lot of good and unhealthy eating.

Carla, Holidays, Mom, Teresa

Too Crafty?

November 28, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Teresa’s latest project was too make individualized Christmas booklets for all the members of the family. Well, not for me, but for the other members of the family.

IMAGE LOST

I spent a fair amount of Thanksgiving trying to explain that I don’t really care what I get for Christmas. I’m the easiest person in the world to shop for because I like everything and I get too much as it is.

But the actual truth is that what I would really like for Christmas is to find somebody that can challenge me at the game of Rack Rummy.

Becky, Carla, Formal Portrait, Mom, Music, Shannon, Teresa

The Shannon After

November 11, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Shannon had over a foot of hair cut off her head last Thursday. On Sunday I was able to document this joyous hair loss, but the day was not completely happy.

In the picture above you should try to look past Shannon. You may notice something. Shannon appears to be standing on an abandoned railroad bridge.

My favorite park in Ames is Brookside Park. I don’t believe I would be talking out of turn if I were to guess that it is also Shannon’s favorite park. We met at the park and walked to this bridge despite the cold temperatures.

The previous Saturday we met there to take her before pictures. We talked about going to this bridge on that day because she was curious about it. She had heard a wildly inaccurate characterization of the bridge from Becky. Becky and I had walked across the bridge one night after a Jaycees meeting.

On that Saturday there must have been about 20 people just hanging out on the bridge. I thought we should give the bridge another try, but it did not end up to be one of my better ideas.

If you take you gaze downward you might notice a few things about Shannon. I mentioned it was cold. The proof can be found in the coat/scarf combination that she was wearing. Although it is stylish, the gloves she is wearing are not for fashion purposes. Shannon was cold.

The particularly observant might notice a couple of other things. In her gloved hands Shannon appears to be holding a bag. The bag contains the hair that Shannon parted with so that she could make a donation to Locks of Love.

If you know this bridge very well, you might be able to gather from the trees behind Shannon, she is standing over water.

I’m sure you can see what is coming, but on this day I did not. When Shannon reached into the bag to pull out her former hair to pose for a picture with it, one of the 8 braids (I have no clue if that is the right word) escaped her stylishly gloved, but frozen hands.

It fell between two railroad ties and into the ice cold stream below.

The lost hair.

It was a heart breaker. I didn’t think Shannon would want this to be documented, but she insisted that it be documented.

We managed to get the rest of her former hair put away and left that cursed bridge.

Once we got to dryish land we took some pictures of the her and her former hair.

That is lots of hair.

I repeat. That is lots of hair.

The lost hair didn’t take off down the stream immediately. There was some time where it seemed like it might possibly wash near enough to the bank that we could get to it with out descending deep into the near freezing water.

Shannon watching the hair float away.

But it was not to be.

The day was not a complete loss though. There are still 7 locks to be sent to Locks of Love. A wonderful donation.

Plus, Shannon does have a great new hair cut!

I also gave this beanie to Shannon. I hate to part with anything that Teresa makes, but I don’t think the colors are for me. Everybody seems to say that the hat looks better on her than me any way. It is probably because it is hard for me to give the badass vibe that I normally emanate when I’m wearing that beanie.

After the photo shoot Shannon helped me to write a CPG for the Ames Jaycee website that I redesigned. I won’t bore you with the details, if you aren’t a Jaycee you really wouldn’t be that interested.

Then we joined my Mom, Carla and Teresa for supper at Jeff’s Pizza. If I haven’t written about it before, I love Jeff’s Pizza. I’m a particularly large fan of their Gyro Guy pizza and their Clones. Clones are pizza rolls and they are fantastic. Better than Gumby’s used to make before Gumby’s went terribly downhill.

The meal was pleasant despite the fact that the large amount of females at the table insisted on ordering a Chicken Alfredo pizza. I’m going to tell you flat out, chicken does not belong on a pizza. Even the gourmet pizza wizards at Jeff’s Pizza could not sway my opinion. I will freely confess that their Chicken Alfredo pizza was the best chicken pizza I have had to date, but it still wasn’t a pizza I would want to sit down and take to town.

Thankfully, we ordered a Gyro Guy pizza as well, so I didn’t wither away.

The conversation was relatively polite until it inevitably turned into gossip hour about my friends. I was able to put the smack down on that though. We gossiped about Teresa’s friends instead.

Truth be known, I don’t gossip.

After dinner Shannon and I went to Stephens to see the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. It was the first professional symphony orchestra concert I have ever attended. They played 3 pieces of music including a piece by Bernstein and a piece by Copland.

The lights never fully dimmed. This was something I wasn’t expecting. Another thing I found odd was that they opened the show by playing the Star Spangled Banner. I’ve gotten to the point where I only hear the National Anthem at sporting events, so that was a nice little surprise. They followed the Star Spangled Banner with the playing of what I’m going to assume was the Israeli National Anthem.

They concluded the show by playing two encores. Before the encores the conductor of the Symphony Orchestra spoke to the crowd and praised people from Iowa. I guess that was the classical music equivalent of “You rock Ames, Iowa! We wish we could take you with us.”

It was a very enjoyable show. I will gladly go see a Symphony Orchestra concert again in the future.

So the night ended on a high after the low of losing the hair. An excellent day at the aggregate level!

Animals, Art, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Jay, Macro, Mom, Road Trip, Still Life, Teresa

Kalona (Part 2)

October 15, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

More pictures from Kalona.

Have I mentioned how much I love cheese curds lately?

Candid Portrait, Flowers, Jay, Macro, Mom, Road Trip, Still Life, Teresa

Kalona (Part 1)

October 14, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Some pictures from the trip to Kalona.

The beginning of the trip was a little bit sad. It turns out that one of my favorite restaurants, The Kalona Cupboard, has went out of business. We tried out The Parlor Cafe, but it was not anywhere near as good as The Kalona Cupboard. In fact, they microwaved everything. I mean everything.

If you don’t know, I have a pretty big prejudice against food made in the microwave.

On top of that, the “chef” (who both took your order, microwaved it and put it on your plate) asked me if I was an Iowa State fan.

“Yes.”

“How much did you guys lose by last week?”

Iowa fans. God love them, if there is any room left for how much they already love themselves.

After the disappointment of the Cupboard closing and the poor food from the Microwave Cafe, we at least found Yotty’s Ice Cream Shop. It was excellent.